OATS AND OTHER CEREAL CROPS 87 



No. 3 White Oats are seven eighths white, but not sufficiently 

 sound and clean for No. 2. No. 4 White Oats are seven eighths 

 white, damp, badly damaged, musty, or for any other cause unfit 

 for No. 3. 



Barley and Rye. Barley has been used as food for man and 

 beast from time immemorial, and it continued to be our chief bread 

 plant down to the sixteenth century. The culture of rye, on the 

 other hand, is not so ancient, and we first hear of it on its intro- 

 duction into the Roman Empire about the time of the Christian 

 Era. Barley ranks fourth among the cereal crops of the United 

 States, and it is one of the most valuable. For the last decade the 

 relative values of our staple grains were as follows: Wheat, $6.90 

 per acre; Oats, $7.24; Maize, $8.71; Barley, $8.34; and Rye, $5.95. 



Barley is chiefly used as a food for domestic animals and for 

 malting purposes, while the grain of rye is used for the production 

 of flour, for food of domestic animals, and for the 

 production of alcohol and alcoholic beverages. 

 Rye straw is used to a large extent in the manu- 

 facture of paper, baskets, boxes, tables, trunks, 

 fans, caps, and mats. 



Rice. Among all nations rice is held in high 

 esteem. The Chinese have used it in some of 

 their ceremonies since the year 2800 B.C. In their 

 annual seed ceremony of sowing five kinds of 

 seed, none but the emperor is permitted to sow 

 the rice. Even in our own country the scattering 

 of rice at a marriage ceremony is looked upon as 

 a favorable omen. 



The Saracen invaders introduced rice into Spain 

 and Italy about the fifteenth century. It was 

 introduced into the Virginia Colony in 1647, and 

 into South Carolina in 1694 by the captain of a 

 Madagascar trading vessel, who presented the governor with a bag 

 of rice. Since then it has become one of the important crops of 

 the Southern States, especially those along the Gulf of Mexico. 

 The bulk of the rice crop of the United States is raised in Louisiana, 

 South Carolina, Hawaii, Texas, Arkansas, the Philippines, Georgia, 

 and North Carolina. 



